The Anima [completed]

12.

12. 

All I could think about was the shadow creature as I prepared for another night of performing. The dress fit me like a sheath, a few shades darker than my own skin. My makeup and hair was done softer than the opening night. I drifted through the hallways with the guidance of a Fae with blue skin, a squashed face and short leg. Lost on the path, my mind wandered through a labyrinth of possibilities. Balance. A simple word that carried weight when passed from grave and demanding lips. But what exactly did it mean coming from the mouth of a shadow?

"Through here, Milady." The short man's voice was squeaky and unpleasant as he gestured to two gigantic doors, the only I had seen in the palace not surrounded by vines.

I gave him a tight smile and pushed open the doors. The low hum of chatter filled my ears like earplugs and a series of bright lights shone into my wide eyes. The many glass chandeliers hung from the stone ceiling illuminated the enormous hall that was filled with Faeries in extravagant robes and suits. There were tables of food and drinks where they all mingled around, a few stumbling in their drunkard instability. I could not see any faces I recognised in the crowd, the King and the man in the golden robes nowhere in sight. My chest rose and fell quickly and I made my way over to the far corner of the room, where the last performer was just finishing up.

A young man with purple hair smiled at me from behind the microphone before he stepped away from the platform and gestured for me to approach.

"Over there is a Brownie named John, he will help you find the sound track to whatever music you are performing for the next hour. They're quite connected to our world, so they know they're stuff. Just trust he has the right thing." He laughed and raked a hand through his sweaty hair, almond eyes squinting.

"Okay."

I stepped up to the platform, and approached the creature. A small and hairy thing with a flat face and a pinhole nose frowned up at me, waiting for me to instruct it.

"Wafia, XXIA, in order presented please. Then her singles." I whispered, brushing my hair out of my eyes and taking my place at the microphone.

The music began to pour out of the walls, like the entire room was a speaker and I was plugged in. The words came out of my mouth with ease, just another daily exercise trained into my body. The Fae continued to chatter, a few stopping occasionally to stare at me, making me shift uncomfortably on my feet until they walked away.

But even when the Fae walked away, I felt someone's eyes on me. My eyes shifted nervously as I searched for the person who was boring into my soul with their hard gaze. And just as I wanted, I found them.

It was the man in the golden robes, the man in the vision, cloaked in the darkness created by the look that swam in his eyes. His white hair fell over his lashes, and as soon as my eyes locked with his the world once again shrank into another one.

I fell into a room of darkness, and the doppelgängers appeared, walking through the fog. Their arms linked made swirls and tiny whirlwinds of smoke peal upwards from their skin, writhing around them like a living organism.

"This is all your now." My doppelgänger waved a hand to open the curtain of darkness.

She revealed the city of the First Pane, overgrown with gigantic plants and trees, but more beautiful than it ever was. Fae bustled in the streets, productivity driving their quick feet onwards to another day of work. The jewellery shops melted their jewels down into hard metals, making all sorts of armoury and weapons. The food markets were not selling in surpluses, but handing out portioned baskets to each Fae who passed by. And in the fields where the Fae used to dance were groups carrying swords and brandishing other small weapons. The land was thriving, the trees and the sun casting merciful light over the city, as if it were thankful for the change.